How to format your references using the Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

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Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.
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Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author
1. Giraldeau,L.-A. (2011) Psychology. When more is more. Science, 334, 910–911.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22096176
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Panstruga,R. and Dodds,P.N. (2009) Terrific protein traffic: the mystery of effector protein delivery by filamentous plant pathogens. Science, 324, 748–750.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775090
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Zhang,X.-L., Liu,L.-F. and Liu,W.-M. (2013) Quantum anomalous Hall effect and tunable topological states in 3d transition metals doped silicene. Sci. Rep., 3, 2908.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3793221
A journal article with 11 or more authors
1. Tacconi,L.J., Genzel,R., Neri,R., Cox,P., Cooper,M.C., Shapiro,K., Bolatto,A., Bouché,N., Bournaud,F., Burkert,A., et al. (2010) High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star-forming galaxies in the young Universe. Nature, 463, 781–784.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20148033

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book
1. McMaster,M.C. (2007) HPLC John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
An edited book
1. Auricchio,A., Singh,J. and Rademakers,F.E. eds. (2012) Cardiac Imaging in Electrophysiology Springer, London.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Aribi,N. and Lebbah,Y. (2013) Exact Approaches for Parameter Elicitation in Lexicographic Ordering. In Perny,P., Pirlot,M., Tsoukiàs,A. (eds), Algorithmic Decision Theory: Third International Conference, ADT 2013, Bruxelles, Belgium, November 12-14, 2013, Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 45–56.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue.

Blog post
1. Hamilton,K. (2015) Humpback Whale Breaches Practically On Top Of Kayakers. IFLScience.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report
1. Government Accountability Office (2002) National Airspace System: FAA’s Approach to Its New Communications System Appears Prudent, but Challenges Remain U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation
1. Oates,P.E. (2009) Leadership transactions impacting transformation.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article
1. McKINLEY,J.C.,Jr (2016) Hip-Hop Artist, Accused of Being a Gang Leader, Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Weapons Charges. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (1).
This sentence cites two references (1, 2).
This sentence cites four references (1–4).

About the journal

Full journal titleNucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue
AbbreviationNucleic Acids Res.
ISSN (print)0305-1048
ISSN (online)1362-4962
ScopeGenetics

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